The Big Easy

Chase and I have a list of cities we want to go see, and since my boss was going to take a few days off in late March we decided to mark off one of those cities... New Orleans.

New Orleans was on the top of our list because it was a relatively cheap and close trip you could do over a long weekend. We have lots of family and friends that have been down there and everyone seemed to love it, and we got lots of great tips and "don't miss" lists. And the major plus... you can ride the train down there from Memphis! Neither one of us had ever ridden a train before so we thought that would be a lot more fun then making the long drive fighting over whose turn it was to drive.

We drove to Memphis after work on Tuesday and got up REALLY early Wednesday morning to go catch the train to New Orleans.  We loved the train ride! It was about an 8 hour ride but it went by so fast. You had tons of leg room, reclining chairs, all kinds of snacks and goodies (thanks mom and dad!), movies on the laptop, you could get up and go to the lounge car or the observation deck when ever you wanted to, not to mention we both slept the majority of the way down there. :)

---SIDE NOTE: I planned on making a written itinerary for us on the train ride down there, but Chase asked me very nicely not to "schedule" our whole trip. "Let's just be spontaneous, and do things when we want to do them." This is REALLY hard for me. I want to plan everything out so that we don't miss anything, and we can maximize our time and money. So we did not have a written itinerary, but that didn't keep me from thinking about it and having a mental list :)

We arrived in the Big Easy about 3, and caught a cab to our hotel in the French Quarter. We unloaded our bags and headed out for an early oyster dinner at Acme (which really turned out to be a late lunch, since we ate another dinner much later that evening :)...)

 Then we walked Bourbon Street for a little bit and ran across this guy, that I thought was super cool so I took my picture with him.

And come to find out he is a New Orleans icon... he is even pictured on the front of there tourist magazine....

Then it was on to Pat O'Brien's for their infamous hurricanes :) YUM!

We left Pat O's and just took in all the sights (and smells) of the night life on Bourbon Street. I can not count how many times we walked from one end of Bourbon Street to the other. We would people watch for a while then go into stores and look around then people watch some more.

 We ended up back by the hotel, and decided we were hungry so opted for Felix's before we turned in for the night. This was Chase's first time to eat Crawfish, and we got a very humorous lesson of how to "pinch the head, and suck the tail"

Oh... and see the name tag I have on... we crashed a 20 year high school reunion... :)

Then it was time to call it a night....

DAY 2:

I am an early riser, so when I couldn't get Chase out of the bed I went and laid out by the pool for a couple of hours Thursday morning (this was not on my agenda, but probably the reason he did not want an agenda). I was finally able to pull Chase out of the bed by about noon and we headed down to Cafe Du Monde for beignets. Yum! Then it was off to the French Market to see if there was anything we could not live with out. All we got was some dried fruit and pickled okra. We walked around  the French Quarter most of the rest of the afternoon seeing must sees like the moon walk along the river, the voodoo shop from the capital one commercials, a horse drawn carriage tour, etc

Here are some highlights...

We got to see the Google Earth car! Look for us on the corner of Decatur and Toulouse.

Chase paid $10 to have his brand new tennis shoes shinned.

We even saw an impromptu parade by a local school band

Then we went back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner then Bourbon Street.

We spent most of that night in a country bar called the Bourbon Cowboy where Chase got to ride a bull!

 

DAY 3:

We woke up late our last full day there and went to eat breakfast at Mena's place, then did more touristy sight seeing the rest of the day. We took the trolly ride down canal street, walked down to the old cemeteries to take our own cemetery tour, and we toured the 1850 House. We ran into an old friend we had not seen since high school, Austin, and his girlfriend Jill, who were there for a wedding. Such a small world!

We went back to the room, relaxed, and napped, hopping to stay out late our last night. Around dinner time we headed out to eat some some traditional New Orleans food like gumbo, jambalya, and poboys, and I wanted to sit on a balcony so we could people watch. People watching in New Orleans is the best!

After dinner we walked bourbon street again and came across a really neat street show. They were break dancers that had once tried out for the TV show America's Got Talent. Check it out!

We decided to meet our long lost friends at a piano bar called Howl at the Moon later that night. We spent most of that night catching up with them. 

Turns out they were staying off Decatur Street in on of her friends apartment that used to be the Princess of France's apartment! How Cool, right?!?! So we had to go and see it. Sorry, no pictures... but I thought  I might have come off a little creepy if I was taking pictures of this girls apartment. But, trust me- this place was amazing!!!! Huge vaulted ceilings with at least 2 feet of hand carved crown molding, luscious court yard, slave quarters they were renovating into additional bed rooms, and huge balconies. I could just go on and on... It is absurd to be that people have THAT much money! After a long night of reminiscing we headed back to our loley hotel room :) Oh, and Bourbon Street late on a Friday Night it quite a sight to see! :)

DAY 4:

  

We had to catch our train around lunch time, so we got up for a late breakfast at a little place in the french market since we were headed that way anyway to get a mufaletta to-go for the train ride back home. We went back to the room, finished up packing and headed out to the train station. The ride back seemed much longer for some reason, but still- riding the train was an adventure in itself. We much preferred riding the train to flying. Back to Memphis it was- then back home on Sunday.

Chase and I both had a really, really good time in New Orleans, it is one of our favorite vacations we have ever been on. Even with out a written schedule and itenaray we got to see, do, eat, and drink everything we wanted to. Maybe I'll try it again on our next vacation, just maybe...